The New Library Building
 A Major Development

It is unusual, in these days when available cash gets swallowed up by the incessant demands of repairs to existing fabric, for a Cathedral to undertake a major new building development. The construction work now completed close to the west front of Hereford Cathedral has created what has been termed a 'high-tech. medieval building' to house the world famous Mappa Mundi and the Cathedral's Chained Library, the largest in existence. Using modern materials and know-how, the new building provides a controlled and secure environment for these and other priceless treasures which have been in Hereford for centuries.

A Conspicuous Location

The chosen site is a sensitive one both on environmental and on archaeological grounds. The dimensions of the building have had to be kept in proportion to its immediate surroundings, and this has meant the inclusion of a basement to provide sufficient space for everything that needs to be housed. The quality, design and texture of the materials have had to be appropriate; for example, stonework of a similar colour and grain to the existing Cathedral sandstone has had to be used. The site was known to be part of the City's ancient burial ground, and a preliminary survey estimated that a possible 450 skeletons might be found. In the event, a total of 1,200 articulated skeletons and remains of approximately 5,000 more were uncovered during the nine-month dig by the City of Hereford Archaeology Unit.

Who is paying for it?

The whole project has been funded by the Hereford Mappa Mundi Trustees, a body set up following the financial crisis of the Cathedral in 1988, when the Dean and Chapter were faced with a mounting overdraft and a deficit budget which left them unable, in spite of a successful £1m appeal in 1985, to continue coping with the restoration of the building and the ongoing ministry of the Cathedral, as well as looking after their treasures. After lengthy negotiations with the government through the National Heritage Memorial Fund, an agreement was reached by which the Dean and Chapter transferred Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library, together with other ancient books, to a new body of Trustees which was at the same time endowed with £2m by NHMF, from which only the income could be spent, firstly to conserve and display to the public the treasures thus transferred to them, and secondly to support other needs of the Cathedral. At the same time Mr. J P Getty Junior donated £1m for the construction of a new building to house the treasures. This generous gift, together with tax recovered and interest received by the time of the contract, was worth £1.7m.

Why a new building?

Mappa Mundi has never had a settled home, and the Chained Library has not been on display in its entirety since 1842, when the Lady Chapel, which had housed it since the presses were constructed in the early seventeenth century, was restored as a place of worship. The part of the Library which is currently on display is only accessible to those who are able to mount a spiral staircase of fifty-four steps!

The new building was designed by Sir William Whitfield and partners and the builders were Ludlow based Treasure & Son Ltd. Technically, it is the most modern building in the world in terms of air conditioning, fire prevention and other secure systems, yet it has been constructed using materials in common with those in the rest of the Cathedral. It not only provides a worthy setting for these great treasures, but also presents them within the context of the Cathedral's whole working library and archive repository, with a reading room provided for scholars and the expanding collection of modern books in a space over the Chained Library and Mappa chambers. The archives and other rare books will be kept in the basement.

The public will enter via the south-west cloister and existing two-story Dean Leigh building. Here will be an introductory Exhibition, designed by Ivor Heal, creator of numerous major exhibitions in London and elsewhere since he left the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1978. The new library was formally opened by Her Majesty The Queen on Friday May 3rd 1996.

A year later, the Royal Fine Art Commission awarded the structure its prestigious Building of the Year award. The Dean and Chapter continue to face considerable challenges in caring for the rest of the buildings and operations of the Cathedral, and will still depend to a great extent upon the voluntary donations of all visitors. But in this exciting new venture they will at last be able to display some of the country's greatest treasures in a worthy and fascinating context.